The New Jersey Devils have finally signed Jesper Bratt

It took much too long but the deed is done.

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It’s finally over.

After an exhaustingly long negotiation, the New Jersey Devils and Jesper Bratt finally reached an agreement on a new contract.

It is a two-year extension worth $2.75 million per season. Bratt will earn $2,050,000 in Year 1 of the deal before jumping to $3,450,000 in Year 2. He will remain a RFA, and under team control, upon expiry.

This isn’t a steal for the Devils relative to what comparable players have signed for over the years. Evolving-Hockey’s contract model actually had Bratt projected to pull in $2.5M over a two-year bridge (that would have jumped to $3M on a three-year deal).

In saying that, I think Bratt is well worth the money – and the Devils had little to gain by pinching pennies further.

They have ~$10 million in space after extending Bratt. Money isn’t even a thought this year. It won’t be an issue in the off-season, either, as they have some ‘bad’ money (like Travis Zajac’s $5.75M cap hit) coming off the books.

Saving a couple hundred thousand would do absolutely nothing for the Devils in terms of their ability to further build out the roster. All pushing this further would do is risk souring the relationship with one of the team’s most important young players. Yeah, no thanks.

You don’t need me to explain why Bratt is worth $2.75M per – I don’t think there is much doubt – but I’m going to do it anyway.

We’ll start with his bread and butter. Bratt is a very talented, and effective, offensive player. He has produced 5v5 points at a top line rate in consecutive years. His 2.23 points per 60 during that span ranks 45th, just ahead of names like Sebastian Aho, Filip Forsberg, Jack Eichel and Taylor Hall. I’m not saying he is on that level as a player but, clearly, there is something there.

So, the offensive game is very good. We’re all on the same page there. What’s encouraging about Bratt is that his defensive game is drastically improving.

His even-strength defense was worth -4.1 GAR as a rookie. It improved quite a bit in 2018-19 but, at -2.7, still left a lot to be desired.

Last year he took a massive step forward defensively, posting an ESD GAR of +2.4.

Adding that kind of defensive impact to top line production – at least at 5v5 – turns Bratt into quite the player.

Believe it or not, his overall GAR was 65th best among all forwards last season. Not only did he produce 5v5 points like a 1st liner but, overall, Evolving-Hockey measured his impact as such.

That you can even debate Bratt is that caliber of player makes him well worth the money he is getting. Again, as an RFA with little leverage maybe the Devils didn’t get the best deal imaginable. But they really didn’t need to. So long as they didn’t get ripped off to the extent that players/agents feel they can walk all over GM Tom Fitzgerald in future negations, it is a win.

It took much, much, much, too long. But Bratt is finally under contract, and it is a perfectly good one.

I look forward to watching his continued development when he gets into the lineup. Unfortunately, it’ll be at least a few games before that happens.

numbers via NaturalStatTrick.com and Evolving-Hockey.com

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